Half-pint limit urged for drivers under 21

Drink-drive limits for young people should be reduced to the equivalent of half a pint of beer while staying at the current level for the rest of the population, according to a new report that could shape the direction of Britain's alcohol strategy.

Ban Baumberg, the author of the Institute of Alcohol Studies report, said: 'Inexperienced drivers are more at risk of situations that endanger both themselves and the wider public and in these situations, the last thing they need is impaired judgment and reflexes from drinking. We studied some American states that put extra restrictions on young and inexperienced drivers, and we found that approach was highly effective in reducing the number of motor vehicle fatalities, particularly among the youngest drivers.'

The report calls for a limit of 20mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood for young people under 21 and 50mg for everyone else. The current UK limit is 80mg. With 50mg roughly equivalent to a pint of beer, young drivers could be over the limit after drinking just half a pint of strong lager. In addition, the report also urges the ending of alcohol education in schools, unless part of a wider programme, and wants tighter restrictions on alcohol advertising.

The report recommends training programmes for bartenders to help them identify those over the drink-drive limit and to give them advice on how to refuse to continue serving such people and provide them with alternative transport.

Baumberg said: 'Training programmes run in Australia and the Netherlands have achieved a significant improvement in discouraging over-consumption by drinkers and have seen bartenders successfully encourage drinkers to switch to alternative, non-alcoholic beverages.'

The report will be used by the European Commission to formulate its alcohol strategy, to be published in the autumn, and comes just a week after experts issued a warning that Britain is facing a health timebomb as binge-drinking increases. 'Alcohol is public health enemy Number Three in Britain, behind tobacco and high blood pressure,' said Christine Godfrey, a professor at the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York.

Binge-drinking in girls has increased and is now the second highest in Europe. In boys that rate has stayed constant, but overall at least a quarter of our 15- to 16-year-olds will go on three drinking sessions every month.